Form error...

elmas156 · March 2, 2011

I have been trying to figure this out for hours and I can't see what's wrong. I'm getting this fatal error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function form() in /home/content/29/6879529/html/contact.php on line 5

Here's my form code:

<html>
<form name="contact" method="POST" action="contact.php" onsubmit="return validateContactForm()">
<input class="textbox" name="fname" type="text" />
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Send Message" />
</form>
</html>

Here's my php code, which is at the top of the same page the form is on:

<?php

if (isset($_POST['submit'])) { // If the form has been submitted.

	$fname = form($_POST['fname']); //This is line 5
                echo $fname;

       }

?>

Any ideas on what could be causing this error? I've used this format MANY times in the past and I've never had a problem until now. I'm baffled!

trq · March 2, 2011

Where is the function form() defined?

elmas156 · March 2, 2011

That's the thing... I'm not using "function form()". The only place on my page that you see anything about the form is where I've specified... it's just a little simplified. Here, I'll include the code for the entire page.

Entire page code:


<?php

if (isset($_POST['submit'])) { // If the form has been submitted.

	$fname = form($_POST['fname']);
	$lname = form($_POST['lname']);
	$email = form($_POST['email']);
	$position = form($_POST['position']);
	$district = form($_POST['district']);
	$message = form($_POST['message']);

		$sendto = "contact@site.com";
		$emailsubject = "New Contact";		
		$emailmessage = "<html>
		<body>

		<table width='400' border='1' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='0'>
			<tr>
				<td width='150' align='left' valign='top'>
					Name:
				</td>
				<td width='250' align='right' valign='top'>
					$fname $lname
				</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td width='150' align='left' valign='top'>
					Email:
				</td>
				<td width='250' align='right' valign='top'>
					$email
				</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td width='150' align='left' valign='top'>
					Position/Title:
				</td>
				<td width='250' align='right' valign='top'>
					$position
				</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td width='150' align='left' valign='top'>
					District:
				</td>
				<td width='250' align='right' valign='top'>
					$district
				</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td width='150' align='left' valign='top'>
					Message:
				</td>
				<td width='250' align='right' valign='top'>
					 
				</td>
			</tr>
		</table>
		<table width='400' border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='0'>
			<tr>
				<td width='400' align='left' valign='top'>
					$message
				</td>
			</tr>
		</table>

		</body>
		</html>";

		// To send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set
		$headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
		$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";

		// Additional headers
		$headers .= 'From: $fname $lname' . "\r\n";

		// Tells the mail server who the email is from				
		$fromaddress = '-f $email';

		// Mail it
		mail($sendto, $emailsubject, $emailmessage, $headers, $fromaddress);

}

?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">
<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<script language="JavaScript">
function validateContactForm() {

var fname=document.forms["contact"]["fname"].value	
if (fname==null || fname=="")
{
    alert("Please enter your first name.");
	return false;
}

var lname=document.forms["contact"]["lname"].value	
if (lname==null || lname=="")
{
    alert("Please enter your last name.");
	return false;
}

var email=document.forms["contact"]["email"].value
var atpos=email.indexOf("@");
var dotpos=email.lastIndexOf(".");
if (atpos<1 || dotpos<atpos+2 || dotpos+2>=email.length)
{
alert("Please enter a valid e-mail address.");
return false;
}

var position=document.forms["contact"]["position"].value	
if (position==null || position=="")
{
    alert("Please enter your title or position you hold within the school distict you are affiliated with.");
	return false;
}

var district=document.forms["contact"]["district"].value	
if (district==null || district=="")
{
    alert("Please enter the name of the school distict in which you are affiliated with.");
	return false;
}

var message=document.forms["contact"]["message"].value	
if (message==null || message=="")
{
    alert("Please type your message before submitting the contact form.");
	return false;
}

}
</script>
<title>Contact Us</title>
</head>

<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {

	echo "<body onLoad=\"alert('test')\">";

} else {

	echo "<body>";

}
?>

<div id="container">
<div id="header">
	<div id="logo_w1">Welcome<span class="sm1">SM</span></div>
	<div id="logo_w2">Anonymous Communication System</div>
	<div id="header_text">
		<p>"Helping kids to safely communicate with the comfort of anonymity."</p>
		<a href="requestdemo.php">Request a free demo of our system.</a>
	</div>
	<ul>
		<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
		<li><a href="about.html">About Us</a></li>
		<li><a href="service.html">Our Service</a></li>
		<li><a href="founder.html">Meet the Founder</a></li>
		<li><a href="news.html">News & Press</a></li>
		<li><a href="contact.php">Contact Us</a></li>
	</ul>
</div>
<div id="content">
	<div id="left">
		<h1>Contact Us...</h1>

		<p>Please provide the following information:<br />
		<em>Required*</em></p>
		<form name="contact" method="POST" action="contact.php" onsubmit="return validateContactForm()">
			<table width="470" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
				<tr>
					<td width="170" align="left" valign="top">
						First Name*:<br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
					<td width="300" align="right" valign="top">
						<input class="textbox" name="fname" type="text" /><br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td width="150" align="left" valign="top">
						Last Name*:<br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
					<td width="300" align="right" valign="top">
						<input class="textbox" name="lname" type="text" /><br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td width="150" align="left" valign="top">
						Email*:<br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
					<td width="300" align="right" valign="top">
						<input class="textbox" name="email" type="text" /><br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td width="170" align="left" valign="top">
						Position/Title*:<br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
					<td width="300" align="right" valign="top">
						<input class="textbox" name="position" type="text" /><br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td width="150" align="left" valign="top">
						School District*:<br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
					<td width="300" align="right" valign="top">
						<input class="textbox" name="district" type="text" /><br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td width="150" align="left" valign="top">
						Phone:<br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
					<td width="300" align="right" valign="top">
						<input class="textbox" name="phone" type="text" /><br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" />
					</td>
				</tr>
			</table>		
	</div>

	<div id="right">
		<h3>Other Contact Methods...</h3>

		<p><strong>Contact us via email:</strong><br />
		Contact@CaresAbout.us</p>
		<p><strong>Or via telephone:</strong><br />
		Phone1<br />
		Phone2</p>

		<p> </p><p> </p>
	</div>

	<div id="whole">
	Message*:<br />
			<textarea class="textarea" name="message"></textarea><br /><img src="images/nothing.gif" height="5" /><br />
			<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Send Message" />
		</form>
	</div>

	<div id="footerline"></div>
</div>

<div id="footer"></div>	
</div>
</body>
</html>

trq · March 2, 2011

That's the thing... I'm not using "function form()".

Exactly right. Your executing a function called 'form', yet it's not defined anywhere.

In this piece of code.....

$message = form($_POST['message']);

what exactly do you expect form() to do? It's not a php function.

elmas156 · March 2, 2011

This line:

$message = form($_POST['message']);

should set the value of whatever was entered in the "message" field of the form to be the php variable $message. If this is not the correct way to do this, I have been doing it incorrectly all along... but it has been working perfectly until now. What changes do you suggest I make?

Twistedweb123 · March 2, 2011

it is showing an error, as you are calling an undefined function form()

form() is not a inbuilt php function, so if you wish to use it, you must define what you want it to do. I'm guessing, that you may want it to sanitize your inputs, stripslashes etc?

If not, to fix, simply remove form( & ) from around the post variables. If you are trying to sanitize, tell me and ill show you an example function to do so

trq · March 2, 2011

should set the value of whatever was entered in the "message" field of the form to be the php variable $message. If this is not the correct way to do this, I have been doing it incorrectly all along... but it has been working perfectly until now.

You only need .....

$message = $_POST['message'];

To set $message to your forms value. The only possible way your code was previously working was because you had the form() function defined somewhere. It's likely some validation or cleansing function you got from somewhere.

elmas156 · March 2, 2011

OK, thanks for your help. What do you mean by sanitizing my inputs? I did get this code snippet from some code in a tutorial on phpfreaks, but I'm not sure how or why it has worked for me for so long. I have done about 3 php sites and it has worked on all of them until this one... and I'm only using php on one page of this site, which is the contact page.

trq · March 2, 2011

What do you mean by sanitizing my inputs?

User inputted data should not be just blindly inserted into a database, it needs to be validated and sanitized first.

I have done about 3 php sites and it has worked on all of them until this one

Without form() being defined, this code would ALWAYS generate a fatal error.

Twistedweb123 · March 2, 2011

To make a very quick fix, place this code ABOVE the form process

function form($str) 
{
  $str = @trim($str);
      if(get_magic_quotes_gpc()) 
                {
	$str = stripslashes($str);
	}
      return $str;
}

This is a quick function (that ive named form) that will clean your input.

trq · March 2, 2011

To make a very quick fix, place this code ABOVE the form process
function form($str) 
{
  $str = @trim($str);
      if(get_magic_quotes_gpc()) 
                {
	$str = stripslashes($str);
	}
      return $str;
}
This is a quick function (that ive named form) that will clean your input.

If your using Mysql, you will then also (at least) need to run your data through mysql_real_escape_string after using the above function.

Twistedweb123 · March 2, 2011

Yeah, i personally do, but his form is just to email and no database is involved

elmas156 · March 2, 2011

Oh yes, now I see what's been going on... I've always used MySQL in other sites that I've done, and I've always (unknowingly ;-) used a sanitizing function, again from a tutorial that I went through on phpfreaks. So in the past, it was already being taken care of. Man, I learn something new with php every day! Thanks for your help guys.

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